Aelfrie instinctively shrank back.

These last few days, Elize’s mood had been good. It was natural, as her meetings with the Duke were becoming more frequent.

The more they met, the more the Marquis couple were watching Elize’s mood, and they would comply with whatever she wanted.

“Are you telling me to write a letter to the Duke on this lowquality, coarse paper? What exactly does he think of me then?”

The sight of Elize yelling at Maya, her exclusive maid, slipped into Aelfrie’s view as he peeked around the corner. Maya struggled to raise her voice, keeping her head bowed.

“But, but I surely bought the reply letter paper as you instructed……”

“So you bought something that peasants use?”

Listening to their conversation, Aelfrie understood what was happening. Recently, Elize had been writing letters to the Duke quite often.

Though the Duke’s replies were much fewer and shorter compared to what Elize sent, she didn’t care much about it.

After all, she was the only woman with whom the Duke had private meetings lately.

“Elize, what’s going on?”

“Mother! This stupid girl can’t even do a simple errand!”

As the Marquise appeared, Elize yelled again.

“I’m sorry, Miss. I’ll go and buy the proper one again.”

Maya kept bowing and begging for forgiveness, but Elize was unable to control her anger and kept scolding. Then her eyes met with Aelfrie’s, who was standing at the end of the corridor.

“Rida! Come here!”

Elize called Aelfrie, sounding satisfied.

“You go and buy some reply letter paper. At least you should be able to distinguish what kind of paper is suitable to send to the Duke.”

“Yes. Go quickly. The Duke will be waiting for our Elize’s reply, so hurry up. Now, Elize. Don’t get angry and calm down first. We haven’t decided what hair decoration to use for this weekend’s party. Getting angry like this is not good for your skin.”

The Marquise skillfully calmed Elize and entered the room. Aelfrie watched them before heading to the Marquise’s room. The day seemed to be going to be long.

(This is a time separator.)

“Excuse me, passing through!”

Aelfrie raised his voice and squeezed through the crowd.

The central square, always bustling, was exceptionally busy today.

According to the people, many ships of Ash Trading had arrived since morning, attracting everyone from carriage drivers to merchants dealing with them.

Aelfrie managed to slip into a quieter alley and examined the envelope he was holding.

‘It must not get crumpled.’

He thought of Elize’s anger at the ordinary paper. Because of that, he had to buy the highest quality paper with patterns, color, and even fragrance.

Luckily, the Marquise had handed over the money without question since it was Elize’s request.

But that money had barely covered the cost of the paper.

‘If only there were enough left for carriage fare, I wouldn’t have to worry about it getting crumpled.’

Aelfrie cautiously looked out into the main street, still packed with people and carriages.

‘I’ll have to wait and move later.’

Aelfrie stood in the alley, waiting.

In his bag was still the small book he couldn’t understand, causing him trouble, but he didn’t want to take it out.

Today, Elize’s mention of his “price” kept coming to mind.

A thousand gilder.

A considerable amount, neither too large nor too small. Aelfrie momentarily wondered what would have happened if he had had a thousand gilder. Would his parents have given up on his marriage?

‘No way.’

They would be annoyed that his unmarried sister remained, after all.

His thoughts continued. What if he asked a man to give his parents a thousand gilder and fake a marriage?

If they pretended to marry and ran away…

What then?…
Aelfrie turned her head and looked at the sails of the junks beyond the houses between the alleys.

Seagulls were flying frantically, and the wind made the flags at the ends of the masts flutter. Whenever her chest felt stuffy, Aelfrie would habitually look at things swaying in the wind. That’s how she could see the wind.

From the first moment she saw a map.

From the moment she knew there was a world larger and wider than Denertum.

Aelfrie had always fantasized about going far away.

But it was just a fantasy.

She had no way to get out of this place.

In Denertum, women must always move with a husband or male family. Otherwise, except for the very young or old, they were treated as women with corrupt professions.

The difficulty was not just in movement.

“You can’t even own your property.”

Commoner women were working in markets or restaurants, places where many hands were needed. But no bank would accept their deposits without a signature from a guardian.

Naturally, the guardian’s name would be that of a husband or father.

In the case of an orphan, even the name of a steward appointed by the government must be included. Such was the law of Denertum.

And their deposits were not entirely their own, as the guardian also had authority over them.

Noble women had it somewhat better. At least they could claim the things they were gifted as their own.

Everyone had to do so. They could only own what someone gave them.

Conversely, Aelfrie had never owned anything because she had never received a gift in her life.

Aelfrie looked at the fluttering flag of the Empire and recalled her childhood fantasies after a long time.

“I can’t own anything under Denertum’s law.”

Aelfrie’s gaze slowly descended. Beyond the low houses, the newly built building of Ash Trading Company caught her eye.

“Is it possible under the Empire’s law?”

Just as Aelfrie’s imagination was about to continue,

“Grab that guy!”

A voice yelled from the other side of the alley.

“What?”

Startled by the urgent voice, Aelfrie turned her head. Not only Aelfrie, but others standing at the entrance of the alley, avoiding the hustle and bustle of the central square, also turned to look in the direction of the sound.

Someone was running from the other side of the alley. Even from a distance, it was clear at a glance that he was a vagrant.

He was running so fiercely that people retreated to the alley walls, lest they collide with him.

What was frightening was not just his running momentum. His expression was so fierce and cold that it was scary to look at, more than just a simple vagrant’s face.

“Catch him!”

An anguished voice came again from behind the running vagrant.

There stood a middleaged woman with a bewildered face. Aelfrie turned her eyes back to the vagrant.

He was clutching something tightly in his arms. Apparently, he had stolen it from the woman and was running away.

People, not wanting to get entangled in the troublesome matter, stuck to the wall as much as possible.

For a brief moment, Aelfrie hesitated.

What should she do?

She, too, did not want to get involved in a complex matter. She had to get home quickly. Besides, if she helped for nothing and was retaliated against by the person being chased, what could she do? But….

“Help me!”

The instant the woman’s voice was heard again, without knowing, Aelfrie moved.

Someone was in trouble and asking for help. Then it was right to help.

Aelfrie’s foot unexpectedly went forward faster than she thought, and the running man’s foot tripped.

“Ugh!”

The man, thinking that Aelfrie would naturally dodge like the others, fell forward with a loud noise at the unexpected hindrance.

At the same time, Aelfrie’s body rolled on the ground. The man was running so fast that when she tripped him, she also fell.

“You, bastard!”

The man, who twitched for a moment, got up, grabbed what he had dropped, and tried to run again.

She couldn’t let him get away like this.
Aelfrie hurriedly stood up to grab the man, but she felt a sharp pain in her ankle, apparently injured when she had tripped him earlier.

In the meantime, the man had once again moved a few steps away. If things continued like this, she would lose him.

Thinking about how she could possibly catch him, Aelfrie reached into her bag.

She grabbed a book she had brought to read on the way. Aelfrie threw it with all her might towards the man.

Male lead is a Divorced Husband

She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”

Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.

After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.

She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.

But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…

Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!

――

This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!

The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.

That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”

Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”

The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”

That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”

Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”

The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.

Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.

“She was originally a ‘she’!”

At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.

The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”

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